Going Extreme

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A helium balloon carrying pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria in a capsule lifts off Oct. 14, 2012, in Roswell, N.M., on its way to an altitude of 120,000 feet, an altitude chosen to enable him to achieve Mach 1 in free fall, which would deliver scientific data to the aerospace community about human survival from high altitudes. Predrag Vuckovic/Red Bull Stratos/AP

Baumgartner jumps out of a capsule more than 24 miles up in October 2012. Baumgartner shattered the sound barrier while making the highest jump ever — a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert. Red Bull Stratos/AP

Baumgartner and Technical Project Director Art Thompson celebrate after successfully completing the final manned flight in Roswell, N.M., October 14, 2012. Baumgartner came down safely in the eastern New Mexico desert about nine minutes after jumping from his capsule 128,097 feet above Earth. Joerg Mitter/Red Bull Stratos/AP

Erin Langworthy, of Perth, Australia, does bungee jumping to the Zambezi River in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on the border with Zambia, Dec. 31, 2011. The Australian tourist bungee jumping plunged 365 feet into the river when her cord snapped, but she managed to swim to safety with a broken collarbone and her legs tied together. Channel 9 via APTN/AP

In this undated image made from video by Australia's Channel 9, Erin Langworthy, of Perth, Australia, talks about her bungee jumping accident from the Victoria Falls Bridge to the Zambezi River on the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia, during an interview. Channel 9 via APTN/AP

Freestyle jet-ski champion Jack Moule performs at the London Boat Show at the ExCeL Centre in London January 6, 2012. Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Russian extreme sports athlete Valery Rozov performs the first ever wingsuit jump from the Ulvetanna, a 99600-foot-high mountain in the Drygalski mountains in east Antarctica, Dec. 4, 2010. After a 45 second flight Rozov landed with a parachute on the glacier. Thomas Senf/Global-Newsroom/Reuters

A base jumper falls backwards of the Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower, Malaysia, Oct. 28, 2009. A group of base jumpers were attempting to set a Guinness World Record striving to have 24 people base jump every hour for 24 hours from the the 915 feet high communication tower. Mark Baker/AP

A kayaker controls his boat while paddling on whitewater in the Potomac River near Great Falls National Park in Virginia. The Potomac River offers Washington, DC residents a place to find respite from the hustle and bustle of the metropolitan areas mayhem. Andy Nelson / The Christian Science Monitor

Two youths practice parkour, also known as free-running, as they perform a somersault from a wall in the city of Netanya Dec. 23, 2011. Parkour is a method of movement, originally from France, whose practitioners use techniques of vaulting, rolling, running, climbing and jumping to leap over or move around obstacles. Amir Cohen/Reuters

A sand surfer surfs down a gold mine dump in Benoni, east of Johannesburg, May 8, 2010. Visitors to South Africa for the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament can take part in various form of extreme sports from bungee jumping, quad biking, paragliding, and sand surfing when they are not attending soccer matches. Denis Farrell/AP

A bungee jumper leaps off a bridge over Yantra river in the town of Veliko Tarnovo, east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, March, 22, 2009. Two hundred bungee jumpers will try to jump more than 480 times from the bridge in 24 hours to attempt for the third time a new world record for mass bungee jumping. Petar Petrov/AP

Latvia's Edzus Treimanis (l.), Tyler Brown and Jason Rogers (r.) both of the US jump during a practice session at the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup 2011 series at the VeloPark within the new London 2012 Olympic Park at Stratford in London Aug. 19, 2011. Luke MacGregor/Reuters

A base jumper lands with a parachute after jumping off the Skypark of the Marina Bay Sands during a practice jump in Singapore Dec. 30, 2011. Seven international professional base jumpers will jump off the 57-story high public observation deck on Jan. 1 to welcome the new year. Tim Chong/Reuters

Marco Fois of Italy dives into the Tiber River from the Cavour bridge, as part of traditional New Year celebrations in Rome January 1, 2012. Five men jumped into the muddy waters of the Tiber, continuing an annual tradition which dates back to 1946. Tony Gentile/Reuters

Kirill Gavrilov performs during the Red Bull Moto and BMX Freestyle Show in the centre of Russia's Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk May 22, 2011. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

French daredevil climber Alain Robert climbs the 46-story Italia building in downtown Sao Paulo February 27, 2008. Robert, also known as the French Spiderman after scaling some of the world's tallest structures, successfully scaled Sao Paulo's landmark building on his second attempt in a week, after being arrested by police while he began to climb. Rickey Rogers/Reuters